Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/861

 TRACT AND PUBLICATION SOCIETIES 831 tunes. The evangelical society of Geneva, or- ganized in 1831, expended in 1874 $15,000, and has issued in all 335,000 volumes and 3,000,000 tracts. The Belgian evangelical society issued 1,380 volumes and 202,000 tracts in 1874. The British American book and tract society was organized at Halifax in 1867, and has given its effort largely to colportage. In 1874 it em- ployed 26 colporteurs at an expense of $34,629. Its total expenditure has been $169,193. The first religious publication society in the United States was the "Methodist Book Concern," originally established in Philadelphia, which issued its first publication in 1789. It was re- moved to New York in 1804, and for 29 years had its depository in Crosby street. In 1822 the agents established a bindery, and in 1824 added a printing office. In 1833 it was re- moved to No. 200 Mulberry street, and in Feb- ruary, 1836, its premises were destroyed by fire, and a loss of $250,000 incurred. A new building was immediately erected on the same site, which is still occupied by the printing office and bindery. In 1869 a building for a sales house and offices was purchased in Broad- way at the corner of llth street. The book concern has a depository in Cincinnati, which publishes periodicals and a few books ; it has also depositories publishing denominational journals, and keeping full supplies of its books, at Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco; and the ministers of the de- nomination are agents for the sale and circula- tion of its journals and tracts. Its publica- tions consist of books, periodicals, and tracts. The book concern is conducted strictly as a business house, and makes no donations. In 1874 the Methodist Episcopal tract society made donations of tracts, purchased from the book concern, to the value of $15,000, besides contributing more than $5,000 for the publica- tions of missionary presses in foreign lands. In 1844 the division of the Methodist church led to the organization of a book concern connected with the Methodist church, South, at Nashville, Tenn., which eventually re- ceived $200,000 of the capital of the book concern as the share of the church south. The Rev. Dr. John Stanford published tracts in New York in 1786. In 1803 the Massa- chusetts "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge" was formed by the Rev. Drs. Tappan, Holmes, and Morse, Lieutenant Gov- ernor Philips, and others. This seems to have been the earliest undenominational tract so- ciety organized in America. Subsequently nu- merous local societies sprung into existence, of which the "Religious Tract Society" of New York, founded in 1812, and the "New England Tract Society " at Andover, in 1814, seem to have been the most efficient. The latter grew rapidly, and in 1823 changed its name to the "American Tract Society," and shortly thereafter its location to Boston, great- ly enlarging its operations. In 1825 this so- ciety had 205 auxiliaries, had issued 177 gen- 793 VOL. xv. 53 eral tracts and 19 of a series for the young, had published in all over 800,000 copies, and had commenced the publication of an almanac and a monthly journal. In the spring of 1825 the " American Tract Society "was organized in New York, and was intended to unite the local societies then in existence as far as pos- sible as auxiliaries. The Boston society be- came a branch of it. This union continued till May, 1859, when, in consequence of the dissatisfaction of a considerable number of the members in New England and ' elsewhere at the hesitation of the American tract society in New York to publish tracts or treatises on the subject of slavery, the two societies re- sumed their independent organizations. In 1870 the total sales of the society at Boston amounted to $103,027 38, and the expenses of the charitable department to $7,970 95. In 1871 it simplified its plan of operation by contracting with a publishing house to print, bind, and sell its tracts, periodicals, and books. This arrangement proved efficient and econom- ical, and enabled the society, while carrying forward its usual work, to clear off, before May, 1875, a debt of $22,493 27 incurred pre- vious to 1871. This plan is still pursued. The American tract society in New York, owning a large building in Nassau and Spruce streets called the "Tract House," manufactures its publications, and has become one of the largest of the national benevolent societies of the country. At first only English tracts were printed, 215 the first year ; the third year one volume, and tracts in Spanish, French, and German. Every succeeding year the list was enlarged, until at the end of 50 years (1875) its catalogue contained 1,133 volumes and 8,497 smaller publications. In 1843 was commenced the "American Messenger," a monthly fam- ily paper; in 1847 the Bottchafter, a German paper; in 1852 the "Child's Paper," an illus- trated juvenile ; in 1871 the "Morning Light," an illustrated monthly for beginners, the "Il- lustrated Christian Weekly," and the Volts- freund, a similar weekly in German. The average daily issue from the tract house is 54,000 copies of publications, of which 4,000 are volumes; and the entire issue from the beginning has been 358,718,338 copies, of 8,338,141,531 pages, of which 381,683,312 copies were tracts averaging about 8 pages each, and 27,035,026 volumes, averaging about 208 pages; 36,307,806 tracts and 2,603,884 volumes were in foreign languages. The so- ciety has also expended in printing at mission stations in foreign lands $616,637 30. The entire receipts from April, 1825, to April, 1875, were $13,597,589 63, of which $8,957,- 219 50 were from sales, $312,274 69 from rents, and $4,328,095 44 from donations and legacies. In 1842 the society commenced its colportage system, which it has maintained up to the present time. The colporteur, as the term is employed by the society, is an itin- erant missionary, who distributes its pubhca-